Somalia: A young Nation’s Susceptibilities to Invisibles

As the dawn breaks and displays its golden rays of light, I took a route to work. I drove east toward the Sun about fifteen minutes. A question started to emerge in my mind. How much human history the Sun holds and how it witnessed the birth and the fall of Emperies, Monarchs and Dynasties, Regimes. That question nags at me. In reality, human will never extract such information from Sun. I have to live the question unanswered. For sure, the historical textbooks recorded with details the fall of great dynasties, regimes and monarchs through the history. Most recently, we witnessed the fall of Muammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein and Mohamed Siyad Barre in a dramatic events that led to complete obliteration. However, history applauded the well-engineered smooth transition from Apartheid regime, to the new Democratic South Africa. This peaceful transition captured human imagination and resulted in the Noble Peace Price to award those who made the transition go smoothly. Some individuals become indispensable and ingrained in the system that change becomes difficult until the whole structure collapse. A sense of eerie and human agitation had always been the pretext of the imminent collapse. People lost confidence to their regimes before the collapse because systems erode within. After the collapse, societies go through great ordeals and sufferings and the intended results may not achieve. People have only the power to initiate the collapse, but the rest is driven by the forces that came into life. Eventually, a new power house emerges and replaces the old. That is the cycle; that is human destiny (Fitrah).

There are many factors that can lead to the fall of a regime, but the impact that can be had by an individual, although it often goes without attention, cannot be understated. The invisible role of an individual that has no political seat, but has an immense influence in a system has been mentioned through the history of collapse. When the ruling classes maximize their self-interest and became immune for accountabilities, the fate of disaster hangs over the horizon. The people that are unaccountable present to the ruling class divine wisdom that will transform the society for the better, but actually deceiving their true color by harnessing demagogic tone and spiritual superiority. For example, Mullah Fethullah Gullen of Turkey, and his religious movement helped create the power surrounded President of Erdogan. He remained powerful behind the scene despite never being elected or appointed. They fell out after President Erdogan accused Fethullah Gullen was behind the coup d’état last year. In addition, Rasputin of Russia in 1905 had enormous influence on the last Czars. He was a religious monk with healing power through prayer. The Czar’s Empress Alexandra desperately sought the comfort and advice from Rasputin to heal and cure her only hemophilic son. He may be a holy man but he was unable to resist his desire and temptations of power. His influence contributed the demise of the Russian Monarchy which brought the Bolsheviks to power. In our Holy Quran, there is a great story about the tyranny of Pharaoh and his accomplice Haman. Haman was a master of intrigues behind the scene while the Pharaoh displayed his false Goddess character.

Invisibles exploit the system; influence the structural hierarchy, in order to impose their political vision. Usually, the pressure on the unaccountable individuals grows with the passing of time. Although, the motive and interests of these individuals vary, they shape and formulate the political process of a nation, with no accountability if the things go wrong. Undoubtedly, these individuals inherit the control of the power house while they were not elected or visible to the public. The invisibles are highly disciplined individuals with rigid rhythm of chorus either to read the divine books and other religious materials to impress their clients. Somehow these people have religious credentials with a sense of simplicity and modesty. They relate their talent to divine power that manifests through prophecy. Weak and novice leaders hide their poor judgement and intellectual deficiencies, portray their personalities with whimsy and give immense power to the indivisibles. The Invisibles appear trusted and loved in order to conceal the true intention. The people who run the business of governance are not the people we see in front; instead, they are the individuals who shrouded in secrecy. In this type of society, the members of the public lose trust for their leaders because they never know who are truly running the government. Some members of our former leaders including but not limited President Hassan sheikh Mohamoud and Pre-minister Omar Abdirashid granted the port of Berbera to foreign power and gave a contested right to Kenya to claim the usage of some part of Indian Ocean territorial water. Kenya, and another wealthy Arab country, publically supported both President Hassan Sheikh and Omar Abdirashid to win the presidential election this year. They funneled millions of dollars to their campaign just to reward them and to influence their later decision making. This type of influence can grow to a level of proxy governance, whereby these foreign leaders are the ones making decisions and not those elected to make decisions in the best interest of the Somali people.

We must take this concept of Invisibles and apply it to our society, as it pertains to our beloved country, Somalia, only a thoughtful analysis pushes us to decipher the historical process of the nation. Sixty years of existence is a trivial amount of time for the historical process of a nation. Nevertheless, it is full of events with dramatic results that need to address their cause. Moreover, to shed light on the character of our past leaders and the role the invisibles played in their demise, we must reflect. Let’s write chronologically and dissect each individual President how he came in to power and what made him fall. First President Hassan sheikh was unknown figure before 2012. He was among what termed civil society and graduate from Somali National University. Late 80s obtained Master degree from India. He never left the country during the bitter civil war and established phony universities in the late nineties. He involved international humanitarian non-government organization before he threw his hat in to politics. There have been rumors in the political circle that President Hassan Sheikh received millions of dollars from a wealthy Arab state that funded his campaign through invisibles. A foreign country to fund the election of other nation is something fishy and deserves full fledge investigation. Election is an epic center of nation’s sovereignty because it holds the right for the citizen to exercise their constitutional voting right, without interference from the local or outside forces either monetarily or forcefully. This exercise of power by a wealthy donor takes the power from the people and places it with an invisible foreign power. Damul-Jadiid and Gabre were also accounted those played the invisible role during President Hassan Sheikh tenure.

Moreover, how President Abdullahi Yusuf came in to power. He was among the best officers of the national army since the birth of our nation in 1960. After President Siyad Barre took the power from civilian rule, Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf defected to Ethiopia in 1978. He also fought against Mogadishu regime for many years. It is well known that he never had any close relationship with Wealthy Arab states. However, Ethiopia and its secret service agents helped him to win the election in 2004 in Eldorate Kenya. Within months, more than 20,000 Ethiopian soldiers escorted President-Elect Abdullahi Yusuf into the Presidential plaza of Mogadishu. At this time, the great invisible of Gabre came into life first and foremost. President Abdullahi Yusuf thought that he can outmaneuver the power of invisibles and tried to play a hard ball. He refused to recognize the Kenyan water territorial claims against Somalia. His government met its ultimate fate when the invisibles brought it down and replaced him with President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed coming into power 2009. Those that helped bring President Abdullahi Yusuf into power never brought big dollars, but with hard bullets to scare and subjugate the fragile society. Tanks, artillery and ruthless militia with secret service agents and entered daylight into the center of the nation’s spiritual sovereignty, Mogadishu. Thousands perished and many fled becoming displaced. Addis Ababa became the virtual Capital city of the nation. The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, popularly known to be the God father of Horn of Africa. He lectured and became liked in the Western political circle. He appealed to them to obtain more weapons and resources to finish the formidable forces of Al-Shabaab. He claimed to have a vast knowledge about the Somali nature, culture and social fabric. Basically, he manipulated all the social deficiencies and weaknesses in the society. He charted a document in which balkanized the nation into swath of tribes and it gave birth to Federal States.

The current elected President, Mohamed Abdullahi brought into power after social insurrection, that exhausted the outside interference and the role of the invisibles played in the destruction of the nation. The social upheaval of anti-foreign intervention has been the hallmark of the nation that captured its momentum in recently election. The unpopular President Hassan Sheikh lost the election with disgrace after rumors circulated that he misappropriated millions of dollars from government coffers. The election of February 8th revealed the power of the people and their rejection of outside forces. President Mohamed Abdullahi distanced himself from outside invisibles but actually there are signs emerging that invisibles and outside entities may have been involved in his rise to power. Weeks before the election, it seemed President Mohamed Abdullahi was unlikely to win the presidency. According to political experts and imaginative indexes pointed out other candidates were favored to prevail in the election. Many underestimated him but his genuine, honest appearance helped him prevail. President elect Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo promised to fight against corruption and the era of invisibles must end. President elect Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo’s campaign has not been completely transparent. The people need to know whether or not the current administration engaged in the discrete exchange of funds for political gain. In order to dispel these rumors, he must be transparent with the people of Somalia and disclose where funding for his political campaign came from. These disclosures will make his administration stronger and keep the power with the people of Somalia. Thus, the Members of Parliament, especially those younger representatives, should push for this information to be made public (emphasis added). These disclosures of how the campaign was funded would reinforce trust in the government controlled by the people, as democracy dictates. As a young and poor nation, we cannot afford for individuals to go to outside forces for funds every four years for the purpose of seeking election. Our former President created this trend by allegedly accepting and dispensing millions of dollars in funds from outside invisibles. The current administration must reverse this trend in favor of a more openness with the people of Somalia. This openness between the people and the government makes our nation stronger.